God's Challenges
by Lauren Wagner
Summary: Set during DMC with some AWE spoilers: Scruffington is not having a good day and after picking a fight with Ragetti, the one eyed pirate helps teach him a few things about life


Norrington had planned to sleep out on the deck of the Pearl since it was a nice and cool night for a change, and he had even taken up a bottle of rum to keep him company after drinking two others down in the bunk room.

What he did not expect however, was to see one of the crew members leaning on the railing of the ship, staring up at the stars in the sky intently.

With a huff, he was ready to turn and head back to his bunk instead, but when he recognized who the pirate was, he frowned and decided to walk over anyway, if not for anything else then to pick a fight and have an excuse for hitting someone on this blasted ship.

Ragetti stared at the stars in silence, his one good eye narrowed in intense study of the celestial bodies. He had always found the stars interesting, even when he was a child and growing up in Tortuga. His mother had once supported this and even saved enough of her earnings to buy him a small telescope. After her death, he was unable to look up anymore, too worried about getting a knife in his stomach while looking at the stars.

The only other time he was able to look up at the stars was when he and Pintel were in prison waiting to hang. Their window had given them a good view of the stars and every night he would tell Pintel the names of all of the constellations he could find, faintly proud of himself for being able to remember all of their names.

Pintel had simply listened to him, smiling faintly as he let Ragetti have his fun.

And now Ragetti was back to naming as many as he could, his lips moving slightly as he whispered their names to himself, not noticing the haggard looking Norrington walking up to him with anger burning in his eyes.

"Orion…Andromeda…Grea' Square o' Pegasus…"

"What the bloody hell are you doing out here?" Norrington demanded suddenly, and Ragetti flinched and turned around, bowing his head nervously.

"Lookin' a' the stars." He mumbled softly. "Sir." He added as an afterthought.

Snorting at the title, Norrington took a swig from his bottle of rum and looked Ragetti over with narrowed eyes.

"You and that other one…You escaped the noose back in Port Royal." He noted.

Shyly, Ragetti rubbed the back of his head and he nodded, giving him a sheepish smile.

"Tha' dog were really noice givin' us the keys loik tha'…" he mumbled.

He flinched and yelped softly as Norrington suddenly hurled the rum bottle just to the left of him, the glass smashing and spraying him with rum.

"You both gave the Navy a lot of problems after that!" Norrington snarled. "Bloody pirates! A lot of men were demoted for that!"

"M'sorry…" Ragetti said with a slight shrug, worried that Norrington was going to try and hit him now.

"Draw your cutlass!" Norrington snarled. Blinking, Ragetti looked up at him as if he had not heard him right.

"Eh?"

Norrington drew his sword then and Ragetti whimpered softly as he found that he had nowhere to go.

"I'm just going to do what should have been done weeks ago!" Norrington growled and he lashed out.

A sudden strong gust of wind knocked the sword out of his hand and Norrington stared at his empty hand in confusion, the two bottles of rum all ready drunk starting to have an effect on him at last as all the fight seemed to leave him.

"I don' wan' ta figh'." Ragetti said softly, wringing his hands together as his good eye slowly faded down from a bright glowing blue to his natural color.

With a frustrated sigh, Norrington slumped against the railing with a groan.

"Bloody pirates…" he muttered, letting himself get lost in his own thoughts soon enough.

Ragetti hesitated a moment before slowly taking back his spot beside Norrington and looking up at the stars.

"Why are you still here?" Norrington snapped.

"I loik lookin' a' the stars." Ragetti said.

"Are you planning on becoming a bloody astronomer?" Norrington mocked.

"A wot?"

"Never mind." He sighed. "Just get the feck away from me!"

"Sorry." Ragetti mumbled, sliding down before stopping and resuming his star gazing.

The two stood there in silence once more; Ragetti looking at the stars and Norrington staring straight ahead as he thought about the events that left him like this. The silence was broken when Ragetti started to hum a hymn and Norrington laughed scornfully.

"Are you serious?" Blinking, Ragetti stopped and looked at him.

"Wot?"

"Are you seriously humming a _hymn_?"

"Aye." Ragetti nodded.

"Whatever for? It's not like He ever listens and even if He did, I doubt He would listen to a pirate!"

Pintel had once used the same argument while they were in prison and Ragetti reacted the same way, bowing his head shyly and giving him a small smile.

"Jesus ga' mercy ta a thief wot was dyin' nex' ta 'im." He said with a shrug. "'e said tha' ye could git in if'n yer sorry."

"Bollocks!"

"Well why would 'e le' in tha' 'un thief then?"

"It's just a story. It's not true and even if it was; it would only prove that God is a bastard."

Wincing at the spoken sacrilege, Ragetti looked at him sadly.

"Why is tha'?" he asked softly.

"Because while He allowed two murderers like you and your friend to escape; He also allowed Gillette to…"

He stopped then and he promptly looked away once more.

"This Gillette…I'm finkin' 'e died when ye tried ta go afta Jack through the 'urricane, aye?" Ragetti asked as gently as he could.

"Well you would be thinking right!" Norrington snapped, curling his upper lip. "And he was a much better man than any of you pirates on this bloody ship put together!"

"Ye mus' really miss 'im." Ragetti said softly, looking down at the ground but refusing to back down nevertheless.

"Why do you care?" Norrington snorted, looking back at the sea. "You're just a bloody pirate."

"I know tha' when me an' Pinters were waitin' ta mee' tha noose tha' I were scared we would die on differen' days." Ragetti said softly.

"Is that the only thing you were afraid of?" Norrington scoffed.

"Aye."

"Why? If I were you, I would have worried more about whether or not the noose would snap your neck or just strangle you to death. You're too skinny to hang properly."

Ragetti shrugged at this once more, and Norrington was slowly starting to become annoyed at the fact that he could not upset the lanky pirate properly.

"Et's because me an' Pint take care o' each other." Ragetti continued calmly. "We been takin' care o' each other since we me'. E'en when we were in the Navy…"

"What?!"

Ragetti flinched and looked at Norrington worriedly.

"Wot is et?"

"Are you seriously trying to tell me that YOU and HIM were in the Navy once?" When Ragetti nodded, Norrington burst into laughter.

"Oh my God…" he sighed. "They must have been desperate back then…"

"We were Impressed inta the Navy." Ragetti said with a shrug. "Bu' I became Firs' Lieutenan' an' Pinters became 'ead Gunner."

"They'll promote anyone these days…"

"I'm sorry abou' yer frien'." Ragetti said suddenly and the tone of voice made Norrington look up in surprise.

He could see that Ragetti was indeed sorry for Gillette's death and he felt guilty for yelling at him. He had not even been part of the crew when he was chasing them down anyway.

"You…You were made First Lieutenant?" he asked lamely. "That's a pretty high position for an Impressed member of the Navy. Why did you leave?"

"I go' me eye sho' ou' fer tryin' ta talk a pirate cap'n inta givin' up an' leavin' a battle wi' us. The Firs' Mate said I was a traitor an' pirate sympathizer."

"You were shot for trying to end a fight without bloodshed?"

"Aye." Ragetti nodded, taking out his wooden eye and rubbing the hole lightly. "Pintel go' me on the pirate ship where me da' were cap'n an' we been pirates eva since."

He gave Norrington a smile then as he popped the eye back into his head and Norrington could only look at him in confusion.

"How can you still smile after all of this? You lost your eye from the Navy, ten years of your life from the curse, your dignity from that stupid dress…"

"I fink blue is me color actually." Ragetti mumbled. "Tha' red an' pink 'un didn' make me look good a' all!"

"And you almost performed one last jig at the end of the noose."

"All o' tha' stuff don' really matta though." He said with another lopsided smile. "Sure et's all bad…bu' there ar' good fings as well wi' 'em! If'n I 'adn' los' me eye, I wouldn' 'ave me' me da'! An' tha' dress wasn' so bad ta wear…I loiks dresses! As fer the curse etself…"

He leaned forward then, a playful smile still on his lips.

"'ow old do ye fink I am?"

Confused by the question, Norrington thought for a moment as he looked Ragetti over.

"Thirty-four?"

"Forty-five!" Ragetti said with a laugh. "Tha' curse ga' me ten extra years o' me life so tha' I'm really forty-five bu' me body is thirty-five! See? Et ga' me somefing!"

"I suppose that's one way to look at it." Norrington admitted.

"God jus' loikes ta challenge 'is children." Ragetti said gently. "Rememba 'ow 'e allowed Satan ta 'urt Job ta show 'is faith? In the end, Job go' double o' wot 'e 'ad afore. Every bad fing wot 'as 'append ta ye so far…Et's jus' goin' ta lead up ta somefing betta."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive!"

Looking at that confident smile, Norrington couldn't help but return it and he nodded before looking at the stars.

"The stars are beautiful."

"Aye."

…

"Tha' son o' a bitch!"

Ragetti looked up from staring at the random baubles in Tia's room to look at a frowning Pintel and he sighed as he slowly leaned to the side so that his head was resting on Pintel's shoulder.

"I always knew I neva loiked Norrington!" Pintel grumbled, wrapping an arm around Ragetti's middle. "Naow 'e's gone an' killed Jack an' destroyed the Pearl! An' fer wot?!"

"'e were tryin' ta gain back wot liddle 'onor 'e could." Ragetti said with a shrug.

Pintel growled and rolled his eyes at this answer, shaking his head as he fell silent once more.

"I feel sorry fer 'im actually." Ragetti said suddenly and Pintel looked at him in surprise.

"Feel sorry fer 'im? Why?"

"Because 'e's goin' ta 'ave ta live wif wot 'e done ta us." Ragetti explained with a shrug. "An' I figger tha' sooner or lata 'e's goin' ta 'ave ta decide wot's more importan' in life; 'onor or other people's lives."

…

Weeks later, Norrington would decide as he helped Elizabeth get across to the Empress and escape from the Flying Dutchman.

He had finally given up on trying to make her love him and just tried his best to keep her alive; something that he had failed to do for her father when Mercer murdered the old man and dumped his body over the side.

As Bootstrap's blade pierced his body, Norrington couldn't help but think about what Ragetti had said about God liking to give people challenges to overcome. Norrington just figured that God just liked to screw with him the most.

As his eyes slowly began to cloud over and close, Norrington could hear Gillette laughing softly and telling him to hurry up as if from a great distance.

Ragetti was pretty smart for someone who looked and acted as if he were completely insane sometimes.

…

Ragetti's chest started to hurt and he winced and doubled over suddenly, dropping his mop to the ground with a loud clatter.

"Rags? Wot's wrong, lad?" Pintel asked, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"'e's dead…"

"Who's dead, mate?"

"Norrington…" Frowning Pintel slowly helped Ragetti sit down and he looked at the tears in his eye in confusion.

"Wot ar' ye cryin' fer? 'e was the one wot stabbed us in the back rememba?"

"Et's no' loik tha', Pint." Ragetti sighed softly. "'e were only doin' wot 'e though' 'e wanted a' tha' momen'. I'm sure 'e figgered ou' et were wrong by naow an' I'm sorry 'e's dead because..." he stopped then and looked away.

Pintel sat down beside him then, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"Because why, mate?"

"Because…'e reminded me o' ye." Ragetti said and he refused to say anymore, content with just resting his head on Pintel's shoulder and mentally saying a prayer for Norrington.


End file.
